Mattogno on the Dachau Brausebad

[Archie]

Mattogno's book on the Dachau gas chamber (Holocaust Handbook 49) was released recently in November 2022. I haven't seen any discussion of it yet.
https://holocausthandbooks.com/index.php?page_id=49

For a long time the main revisionist talking points on this were Martin Broszat's 1960 statement and the Dachau museum's admission that the "gas chamber" was never actually used.
https://codoh.com/library/document/no-g ... dachau/en/

Thomas Dalton published an article in 2011, "Reexamining the "Gas Chamber" at Dachau." One of Dalton's key points was that the American report 159-L states that room had a high ceiling when in reality it has a very low ceiling. Dalton inferred from this that the ceiling must have been lowered later.

Significantly, the May 15 report also stated that “the ceiling was some 10 feet in height.” Today it is about 2.15 meters, or 6 feet 10 inches. This is a huge discrepancy, and not attributable to misjudgment; clearly the ceiling was lowered, after takeover by the Americans.

https://codoh.com/library/document/reex ... dachau/en/

While Dalton correctly quotes 159-L and is correct that there is a major discrepancy on the ceiling height, Mattogno rejects this conclusion based on photographic evidence.

The evidence in favor of the American forgery seemed convincing, and I too assumed its validity in my paper cited earlier (first published in German: Mattogno 2011, pp. 258-264), but I soon renounced this explanation in the article “The Dachau ‘Gas Chamber’: New Perspectives,” which appeared in 2015 on the Olodogma website, of which the present study is a radical reworking. (pg. 11)

It should be noted that the well-known photograph of May 2, 1945, taken in the “gas chamber” by Illinois Senator Charles Wayland Brooks shows the ceiling of the room in its present state, so that the Americans, who had arrived on April 29, would not have had time to do the work. There is also the American film Nazi Concentration and Prisoner-of-War Camps submitted to Nuremberg as Document PS-2430 (to which I will return later) showing the interior of the crematorium, apparently dating from May 3. If the dates are accurate, there is no doubt that the current ceiling of the alleged gas chamber is original. (pg. 22)

According to USHMM, George Stevens, the director of the concentration camp film, was at Dachau from May 2-7
https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1002425

I would add that I have seen other early accounts that say the room had a low ceiling. For example the article "Find Nazis Removed Stalin Son Jacob, Schuschnigg, Niemoller" from the Washington Post (May 1, 1945): "They had come from a room on the left marked 'Brausebad,' for 'Shower Bath.' It really was a gas chamber, a lok-ceilinged room (sic) about 30 feet square."

It seems then that the contradiction with the ceiling height is most plausibly resolved by concluding that 159-L is simply wrong.

But if the Americans found the room was roughly in the state we seem in the early May photos and films, what then is the explanation for the "fake" showerheads? Mattogno argues that the showerheads weren't fake.

It can be inferred from Document 53 that the shower system was installed before the ceiling slab was poured. The wood planking was made so that the lower surface of the showerheads was left free, and concrete was poured from above, which submerged the whole and left the smooth footprint, which can also be discerned in the surface of the opening (labeled L, Document 53a).

The inscription “Brausebad” was thus not deceptive, but reflected the function of the room.

To verify this explanation, one would have to access the gap between the attic floor and the showerhead-containing ceiling. This scenario is, however, much more reasonable than that of the fake showers inserted from below into an already existing concrete ceiling of the room. It is unknown whether all the pipes of the still-existing showerheads are clogged like the one in Document 52. It is likely that, at an indeterminable time – but when the showerheads had already been officially declared fake – someone (in museum circles) wanted to check whether the showers were really fake, and detached one of them, twisting it with a suitable tool with strong clockwise and counterclockwise movements, so that it caused the pipe to rupture at the point visible in Document 53. If, according to my hypothesis, the pipe was hollow, that is, it was a real connecting pipe, the opening was closed by pressing some cement mortar into it. (pg. 64)

The book is not long but some of it is technical as it frequently refers to diagrams in the appendix. This makes it a bit hard to follow if you read it quickly and casually. I read it closely enough to get the gist of Mattogno's arguments, but I didn't dig into all the technical details. I will probably reread it at some point. But just as a very basic observation I would point out that if the showerheads were in fact fake there would be no need to have anything under the metal covers on the ceiling. Yet we see in photos that there clearly is something there, including what appears to be a pipe.

[Hektor]

The Broszat statement on Dachau/gas chambers in the 'Altreich'. Seems to be forgotten by the orthodox Holocaustians. I'd guess that WW2 historians know about it. But that this isn't really taught at school/university courses on the pre-grade level. That's why students probably will not know about the matter.

In 1960 WW2 was 15 years back. So those already grown ups during the war were now mature 45 year olds. Still capable on debating an issue and picking a fight, at least potentially. It's save to assume that Germans that knew what was going on in Dachau and what wasn't were still alive and perhaps very vocal in their social sphere about the claims that "Dachau had a gas chambers concealed as Brausebad", meaning homicidal gas chambers. From the Holocaustian perspective pushing the "Dachau gas chamber" was a risky thing. When pushed for evidence, they won't be able to do that. So rather drop the 'homicidal gassing claims' for 'the Altreich' altogether and shift it to a zone out of reach for Westerners. And this would be Auschwitz, Treblinka, Maidanek, etc. Those places were safe from scrutiny and people asking too many questions.

Another issue is of course the facilities claimed to be designed as gas chambers. Are they pre 'liberation' originals or have they been tampered with afterwards, to make it seem as if shower facilities were homicidal 'gas chambers'?

The homicidal gassing story is preposterous either way. But if there was a useless facility erected under German supervision this would indeed be a little odd. And is oddity that is being used to play mind games with people. Something in the line of: We can't really proof homicidal gassings (unstated premise), "but why are those odd facilities here, which couldn't be used as shower rooms. wouldn't it make sense that those were 'homicidal gas chambers'?" The whole story works with innuendo to be persuasive. They postulate or insinuate 'six million gassed jews' and then use the fact that a negative can't be proven out of hand as proof for that kind of postulate to be true. That's deception, but apparently Joe average isn't really concerned about it. It's a tourist attraction and it's useful to scare children 'not to become Neonazis'. Seems the boogeyman, the devil, witches have all lost their power to scare people to 'stay on the moral high-ground', so why not use some sykewar stories to 'guide the children'. Never-mind that kids are shown footage that is 'far above' their age in terms of what is otherwise allowable to show to kids. If that footage didn't have 'Holocaust context' attached to it, teachers showing this to kids would probably go to prison or at least be reprimanded due to protest from the parents.

Those efforts in gas lighting are highly manipulative, a form of gas lighting and shaming. So this is a method of control. And it spreads via the educational system. It is first shown to teachers and teaching students who then show it to the kids. It's turning the targets in 'agents of the organization'. It's of course not one single organization one can put the finger on.

But it is 'thought reform' tactics as outline in Margaret Thaler Singers 'Cults in our Midst':

The tactics of a thought-reform program are organized to:
• Destabilize a person’s sense of self
• Get the person to drastically reinterpret his or her life’s history and radically alter his or her worldview and accept a new version of reality and causality
• Develop in the person a dependence on the organization, and thereby turn the person into a deployable agent of the organization

Via the educational system and the media mass distribution of programmatically useful material can occur. And that is also part of 'thought reform's' criteria called 'Milieu Control' (Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism by Robert Jay Lifton). This is about the communication within a group, but also within a person. Within society it is media and educational systems that facilitate communication by giving ideas, buzz-words and concepts through to other people that may debate about it. The cultural industry also plays upon emotion, attitudes and fashions.

This was also considered in terms of the 'Reeducation of Germans' after World War Two. There was a purge in bureaucracy as well as licensing of media only pre-selected people could run newspapers and other media outlets. Within the educational system there were also efforts to boost certain academics and marginalize others.


There is several questions to the building. E.g.:
- Is the building in its original state (assuming it was build during the NS-Period) or was it tampered with?
- Was it usable as 'homicidal gas chamber'?
- Were the showerheads fake? Or was it an operation shower?

Additionally.
Was the OSS or psychological warfare division present in Dachau at the time of liberation?

[Hieldner]

Was the OSS or psychological warfare division present in Dachau at the time of liberation?

Well, the official Dachau Report https://archive.org/details/dachau00unse of the Seventh Army who liberated the camp is divided into four parts by different authors as follows:

I. Foreword
II. Dachau Concentration Camp, OSS section, Seventh Army
III. Dachau Concentration Camp and Town, PWD section, Seventh Army
IV. Dachau Concentration Camp, CIC Detachment, Seventh Army

The foreword was authored by “Colonel William W. Quinn, G.S.C. A C of S,G-2.” “A C of S, G-2” means Army Chief of Staff, military intelligence, I think (what is G.S.C. ?). PWD means Psychological Warfare Division, CIC is the Counter Intelligence Corps.

The New York Times writes about Quinn in his obituary:

In April 1945, he was among the troops who helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp, near Munich. Colonel Quinn, then the top intelligence officer for the Seventh Army, ordered his team to document the Dachau operations.

After the war, he was named chief of operations of the organization that became the Central Intelligence Agency.

“William W. Quinn, 92, General and Former Intelligence Officer,” Sept. 12, 2000. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/12/us/william-w-quinn-92-general-and-former-intelligence-officer.html.

The last page lists these contributors

Composition - Major Alfred L. Howes, G-2 Sect,
Art Work - T/Sgt. John S. Denney, G-2 Sect,
Copy Preparation - T/3 Chas W. Denney, Jr, G-2 Sect,
Photographs - 163d Signal Photo Company
Printing - 649th Engr Topo Battalion

where G-2 means military intelligence, as mentioned before.

With this, I think the question has been answered.

Mattogno writes on p. 22:

There is also the American film Nazi Concentration and Prisoner-of-War Camps submitted to Nuremberg as Document PS-2430

There is no film with that title. The film is called Nazi Concentration Camps throughout said document, the false title appears only the summary description of the document. This is where I think the confusion which film was shown at the Nuremberg trials, Nazi Concentration Camps or Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps, comes from.

[Hektor]

Was the OSS or psychological warfare division present in Dachau at the time of liberation?

Well, the official Dachau Report https://archive.org/details/dachau00unse of the Seventh Army who liberated the camp is divided into four parts by different authors as follows:

I. Foreword
II. Dachau Concentration Camp, OSS section, Seventh Army
III. Dachau Concentration Camp and Town, PWD section, Seventh Army
IV. Dachau Concentration Camp, CIC Detachment, Seventh Army

The foreword was authored by “Colonel William W. Quinn, G.S.C. A C of S,G-2.” “A C of S, G-2” means Army Chief of Staff, military intelligence, I think (what is G.S.C. ?). PWD means Psychological Warfare Division, CIC is the Counter Intelligence Corps.

The New York Times writes about Quinn in his obituary:

In April 1945, he was among the troops who helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp, near Munich. Colonel Quinn, then the top intelligence officer for the Seventh Army, ordered his team to document the Dachau operations.
...
The last page lists these contributors

Composition - Major Alfred L. Howes, G-2 Sect,
Art Work - T/Sgt. John S. Denney, G-2 Sect,
Copy Preparation - T/3 Chas W. Denney, Jr, G-2 Sect,
Photographs - 163d Signal Photo Company
Printing - 649th Engr Topo Battalion

....

Mattogno writes on p. 22:

There is also the American film Nazi Concentration and Prisoner-of-War Camps submitted to Nuremberg as Document PS-2430

There is no film with that title. The film is called Nazi Concentration Camps throughout said document, the false title appears only the summary description of the document. This is where I think the confusion which film was shown at the Nuremberg trials, Nazi Concentration Camps or Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps, comes from.

It appears as if "OSS Section, Seventh Army" was the author of the 'Dachau Report'. Basically compiling all information they deemed useful into a report there. It's reasonable to expect that there will be some misrepresentation being in it.

"However, the new crematorium was completed in May 1944, and the gas chambers, a total of five, were used for the executions and the disposals of the bodies"


"..GAS CHAMBERS : The internees who were brought to Camp Dachau for the sole purpose of being executed were in most cases Jews and Russians. They were brought into the compound, lined up near the gas chambers, and were screened in a similar manner as internees who came to Dachau for imprisonment. Then they were marched to a room and told to undress. Everyone was given a towel and a piece of soap, as though they were about to take a shower. During this whole screening process, no hint was ever given that they were to be executed, for the routine was similar upon the arrival of all internees at the camp.
Then they entered the gas chamber. Over the enhance, in large black letters, was written "Brause Bad” (showers). There were about 15 shower faucets suspended from the ceiling from which gas was then released. There was one large chamber, capacity of which was 200, and five smaller gas chambers, capacity of each being 50. It took approximately 10 minutes for the execution. From the gas chamber, the door led to the Krematory to which the bodies were removed by internees who were selected for the job. The dead bodies were then placed in 5 furnaces, two to three bodies at a time...."


"...While there the civilian employee. Dr. Gobel, of the Glauberg station, gave the order that I shall have to be sent to BLrkenau for gas. In fact I was put together with the other Jewish women into the car, but in the very last moment the SS man in charge of the Glauberg station came and gave order to bring me back again. The clerk of the hospital office, the internee
Adolf Laatsch assured me that Dr# Gobel put my name as the first one on the list of those who are going to pass the gas chambers..."

"SCHUSTER, Heinrich, Johann
Subject was an inmate of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp from 1942 to January 1945* Thera he assisted the SS doctors in the hospital wards. He was accused of singling out other internees for the gas chamber despite the fact that he had only studied for 3 years and was not a doctor..."


"Military Intelligence" Is not completely off the mark. But an issue is that military intelligence isn't only into 'gathering information'. It also can engage in spreading disinformation. So, if you'd like to investigate war crimes, they aren't exactly the best choice there. You'd need more something like military police, even better some independent sources to investigate. But that is not what happened with Western Concentration camps. Psychological Warfare was brought in... Obviously to gather information and to process it in a way that it would be useful for propaganda. Also, media was brought in so where soldiers to look arounds. The waters were already muddied, so they'd of course view it through the lense of 'nazi atrocities'. That those camps were in a major crisis for month already, was ignored. So it's a convenient way to get a narrative created. That even main stream historians do not consider death and suffereing in camps like Dachau, Belsen, Buchenwald to be the result of a 'policy to exterminate the Jews' is ignored by amateur Holocaustians altogether. Supposedly the Jews were transported to the East for extermination. But that is not what a lot of testimony demonstrates. There should be tons of physical evidence as well, but it isn't.

I think one needs to look at what is presented as evidence through the lense of 'atrocity propaganda'. If one ignores the role of 'atrocity propaganda', one is inclined to take the presupposed 'extermination thesis' as 'truth' and 'foregone' conclusion and then interprets everything in line in it. Anything that contradicts gets explained away.


The thing is here that via group think the hypothesis becomes a fact ("that everybody believes") and after that anything will be interpreted in line with it... If that gets enough spin and is told as fact in News-Papers, Media, Radio, Movies and especially at dinner conversations and during tea parties and other social events... It will become a paradigm, something that isn't easy to extinguish. It doesn't look like superstition it is. And it is a Myth in terms of the power it gives those that invoke it.